Hi all, seems like Microsoft has made life difficult again....My company was using Excel 2003 for a year-long calendar for our remote staff. Password protection worked perfectly on the older version, as it prompted upon opening for either a password or to open read-only. Both of these are important. Onlt three people in the compant need to know the password and it is imperative that the remaining people not be allowed to make changes, but also have the ability to save a copy to their local machines, which the managers then could edit for upcoming months. Either way, when the original document was closed, it was STILL protected.



Try as I may, I cannot find a combination of all the new security options that will do the same. Password protection requires the user to remember to re-protect before closing which doesn't work.

The 2003 protection was simple and perfect for our needs. Anyone have any ideas how to get back to this functionality? Again, want the option to open read only or with a password for editing (can be two steps if needed) but the document must automatically close protected.

Thank you for stopping by, appreciated any suggestions.

On the File tab, Info category... Click 'Protect Workbook' then click 'Encrypt with Password'.

Thank you for the response Kimberly, but that ONLY allows the people with passwords to open the file at all. Everyone without a password needs read-only access, and again if we 'unprotect' with a password I want the workbook to close automatically protected.

Ah, sorry.

Save as... In the Save As dialog box, click Tools. Choose General Options. You'll see 'Password to Modify'.

You are the best, thank you!